That examples of poltergeist in the West Indies are not restricted to Jamaica is evidenced by the testimony of Sir Hesketh Bell, and we cannot better close the present chapter than by giving at length the following incident which was related to him by a French priest in Grenada, where Sir Hesketh served in the Colonial Treasury Department in 1883.
“I was once in charge of a large and rather populous country district in Trinidad, and while there a remarkable event occurred which, being still unexplained, has quite shaken my ideas respecting the many stories of mystery one hears so often and laughs at. A friend of mine had bought a large but almost abandoned sugar estate, and the original dwelling-house having fallen to ruins, he was obliged to run up a small temporary wooden building until he could set about erecting a permanent dwelling.
This house was only composed of two good size rooms, divided by a small wooden partition, and having no ceiling but the roof above them. The whole house was perhaps about thirty feet long by fourteen broad. It had been built and occupied by the planter and a brother of his for some weeks, when one evening I met them rushing towards me with the wonderful assertion that stones were falling in their house, and that they could not explain how.
They were in a state of great agitation, and by degrees I extracted from them that they had been sitting in the veranda while the sun was setting, and had remained there until it had become quite dark. One of them was just about to go inside to light a lamp, when the noise of something heavy falling on the floor of the inner room startled him. A moment after came another crash. Hastily lighting the lamp, he opened the door and advanced into the room; on the floor he perceived a couple of good sized stones lying near him. Thinking himself the victim of some trick, he looked towards the window, which, however, was firmly secured. At that instant he heard another crash in the room he had just left. Hastily returning to it, he found on the floor another stone – Bang! Crash! again in the bedroom! Thoroughly alarmed, he rushed outside and called his brother, who, before he had time to speak, asked what he was kicking up all the row for! From outside they could hear distinctly the continual falling of the stones, and, unable to bear it any longer, they had rushed out to beg me to come and see the wonderful and terrifying occurrence.
Calling a couple of men, we returned all together to the little wooden house, and as we approached we could distinctly hear the crash of falling stones. It was only with great trouble that I could induce my two black fellows to accompany us, so great was their terror of this supernatural business. Taking the lantern in my hand, I entered the porch, and instantly, as the light penetrated the house, the noise ceased. Entering the outer room, we found the floor covered with flinty stones of various sizes, some weighing a couple of ounces, others as many pounds. The windows were all closed, and I was perfectly dumfounded. We were all inside examining the stones when a sudden gust of wind blew out the lantern. Instantly the stones began to descend on all sides. We were glued to the spot with terror, and could hear the stones falling quite close to us on all sides; sometimes I could feel them whistling down quite close to my head, but, marvellous to relate, not one of us was as much as touched.
Regaining courage, I managed to relight the lantern, and instantly the miraculous shower stopped. I was at my wit’s end to account for the phenomenon; the stones lay in heaps all round the spot on which we were standing, but as soon as the lantern was alight, all became as still as the grave. Carefully placing our light in a sheltered corner, we began gathering up the stones and piled them together in a heap outside. Finding all still again, we resolved to pass the remainder of the night there, sleeping on the floor as best we could. Everything remained perfectly quiet for a couple of hours, and most of us were soon sound asleep. Being nearest the lantern, and curious to determine the nature of this phenomenon, I plucked up courage and blew out the light. Instantly, as before, the stones began to fall on all sides, and finding that no one had received the slightest hurt, we all began to regain courage and speculate on the causes of this wonderful phenomena. Every time the lantern was relighted, the shower immediately stopped, only to recommence every time the light was put out. This continued all through the night, and ceased on the first appearance of dawn. The roof was in no way injured, and the mystery was perfectly inexplicable. The amount of stones gathered up in the house formed a large heap outside, and were not of the same nature as those lying about the place.
Nothing remarkable happened during the day, but the news of this miraculous shower becoming known in the district, crowds of people came from all sides to see the stones, and hundreds begged to be allowed to pass the night in th ehouse, hoping to witness the phenomenon for themselves, in case it was repeated. A few of our friends, and especially those who pooh-poohed the thing and openly expressed their conviction that the whole business was a hoax, were allowed to pass the night in the wonderful house. They were not disappointed, for as soon as complete darkness came on, the stones once more began to descend. The shower, however, was not so continual as on the previous night, but was witnessed by some fourteen or fifteen people. The next morning, on gathering up the stones, we found that the heap collected on the previous day was intact, and that the stones falling during the second night were fresh ones – obtained – Heaven knows where.
As might be expected, the news of these wonders was very soonspread all over the island, and the place was crowded from morning till night. The mysterious shower, however, never occurred again, and the place returned to its normal condition. Neither the reason, cause, nor effect of these miraculous showers has ever been explained, and the whole thing remains a mystery to this day. That the thing happened, I will solemnly vouch for, but that is all I know about it, and I suppose a mystery it will ever remain.”
Psychic Phenomena of Jamaica, JJ Williams (1875 -1940), first published 1934.